Ready to Comply
by GIRL IN STORY
Summary: This is what might have happened if Bucky hadn't left Steve by the river after The Winter Soldier. No pairings. No longer a one shot.
1. Chapter 1

A/N:

If you like this story, please check out the Kickstarter for my book. It was made a Project We Love, but I still need all the help I can get.

The link is on my profile page, because won't allow external links.

* * *

When Steve woke up, he was in the hospital. Natasha, Sam, and Bucky were standing around his bed. None of them noticed he was awake, because they were too busy staring at each other. You could have cut the tension with a knife, and he wouldn't be surprised if one of them had tried.

He coughed.

"Steve." Nat sounded relieved. He liked to think it was because he'd woken up, but he was pretty sure it was just because he'd broken the tension.

"Sit rep?"

"Mission accomplished," said Nat. "You stopped the Insight."

"Not the situation I was talking about."

"Bucky saved you," she said.

"From himself," added Sam.

"He pulled Steve out of the river."

"Oh, well, he didn't try to kill Steve for five whole minutes. Let's give him the Medal of Honor. Let's just forget that he spent those five minutes trying to kill us."

"He didn't try to kill us."

"He pulled a knife on us!"

"I was out of ammo," said Bucky.

Steve couldn't tell if it was a joke or not. Then again, he couldn't tell if it was Bucky or not.

"I think Bucky was trying to protect you from us," said Nat. "When he saw we weren't a threat, he helped us get you to the hospital."

"Only reason he's still here." Sam jabbed a finger in Bucky's face, and everyone seemed pleasantly surprised when he didn't lose it.

Nat ignored him. "Bucky stopped the bleeding."

"Which he caused," said Sam. "Why do you keep forgetting that part?"

"Carpe diem and all that," said Nat. "I'm trying to live in the moment. This is a nice moment. Stop ruining the moment, Sam."

"Speaking of moments," said Steve. "Would guys mind giving me us one?"

"We'll be right outside," said Nat, with a subtle glance at Bucky.

"Yell if he tries to strangle you with your IV," said Sam, who was not particularly good at subtle. Well, he was a soldier. He was used to having things shouted at him.

Nat grabbed his broken wings and dragged him out of the hospital room.

Steve just wished Sam would stop giving Bucky ideas. Nat seemed to know what she was doing, so he decided follow her lead.

"Thank you for saving me," he said.

Bucky didn't answer. He turned to face the door and stood to attention, one hand at the knife on his hip.

"Bucky? Are you okay?"

There was a beat before Bucky responded. "Why do you keep calling me that?"

"You don't remember?"

Another beat. "I don't remember the mission parameters."

"The mission parameters."

"I know it's my mission to protect you, but if there's a cover you want me to assume, you'll have to brief me. I don't remember receiving my orders." Beat. "Please don't tell them."

Bucky looked back at Steve. His eyes were wild, like they had been on the Helicarrier, metal fist pulled back for another punch, but that was better than the blank stare of the Winter Soldier.

"I won't tell them," Steve promised.

Bucky nodded and turned to face the door again. Apparently giant memory gaps weren't a big deal for him.

"You weren't assigned to protect me."

"What?"

"You weren't assigned to protect me," Steve said again. He decided not to mention that Bucky had actually been assigned to kill him. Baby steps.

"It must be my mission." Beat. "Why else would I be doing it?"

"I don't know. Why are you doing it?"

Beat. "I want to."

Bucky's voice was small, like he hadn't said that word for a long time, and he wasn't sure what the consequences would be.

Steve tried to smile anyway. "There you go."

Beat. "I've never wanted anything."

Steve knew a few dozen women from Brooklyn who would argue with that, although they were probably all dead by now.

"You wanted me to keep your memory loss a secret."

Bucky frowned.

"That wasn't a threat." Steve sighed. "This is a good thing. It means you get to set the mission parameters."

Beat. "I don't know how."

"Sure you do. You used to do it all the time in the Howling Commandos. We usually did it together. Do you want me to help?"

Beat. "Okay."

"How about this: You protect me for as long as you want to. When you don't want to anymore, you stop. Maybe warn me first. What do you say?"

This time, Bucky didn't miss a beat.

"Gotov vypolnit."

Beat. "Huh?"

"Oh," said Bucky. "Uh, ready to comply."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N:

If you like this story, please check out the Kickstarter for my book. It was made a Project We Love, but I still need all the help I can get.

The link is on my profile page, because this site won't allow external links.

* * *

A month had passed since Bucky had moved into the Avenger's complex, and he was adjusting very well for someone who had been brainwashed and tortured for seventy years. Now he only tried to kill people when they woke him up from a nightmare or took the last Pop Tart.

Steve had started sparring with him, and they were both learning a lot. Bucky taught him Sambo, and he taught Bucky non-lethal tactics. The lessons were mutual, but there was a power dynamic that Steve was starting to hate. Bucky waited for Steve's nod of approval before he did anything, whether it was teaching Steve a new throw or pulling a knife on Tony for eating the last Gone Nutty!

Bucky and Steve never fought. They never even argued. Not even when Steve took the last Wildlicious Wild Cherry on purpose.

Bucky was doing so well that the Avenger's decided he was ready for a mission.

They were going to search an abandoned Hydra facility in Stuttgart that Zola had worked at for a brief period during the war. They'd been searching for intel on how he'd uploaded his mind, which Tony said should be impossible due to stochastic neuronal activity. They'd gotten a second opinion from Dr. Strange in case Tony was just upset because he didn't know how to do it, but Dr. Strange had concurred. Mind uploading was impossible.

Stuttgart was their only lead. They didn't expect to find anything, but they had to look anyway. It was Bucky's first mission, other than protecting Steve. Now Steve knew how his ma had felt on his first day off school.

"You've got everything you need?" he asked for the third time. "You've got the power bars I packed for you?"

"For the fourth time, yes."

He must have lost count when Bucky was in the bathroom. (Steve had insisted he went before they left.)

"Sorry." Steve sighed. "It's just our first mission together since the war, and so much has changed."

Bucky put his real hand on Steve's shoulder. "Hey, I've been on more missions than you, punk."

"What did you call me?"

"Relax," said Bucky. "Everything will be fine."

"Wait. What did you call me?"

"Nothing." Bucky dropped his hand. "Let's go."

"Buck, are you're starting to remember?"

He shrugged. "A little. I didn't want to get your hopes up. You're right. Things have changed."

"Bucky..."

"I'm still the good looking one though." Bucky actually smiled. "That hasn't changed. Now stop worrying. Everything will be fine."

Everything was fine, right up until Tony saw the Cadbury chocolate egg.

It was sitting on the control console in the operations room, next to a coffee cup and an ancient Ditsch pretzel.

"Do you think this is still good?" Tony asked, already reaching for it.

Bucky grabbed his wrist.

"Okay," said Tony. "One: You cannot possibly claim the chocolate, which has been here for decades. Two: I wasn't actually going to eat it. I was just going to see if it had fossilized enough that I could use it to prop up my particle acelerator. I'm thinking of inventing a new element. Three: Ow."

Bucky let go. "It's a bomb."

"What?"

He picked up the pretzel and took a few steps away from the console. Everyone else followed suit. Bucky threw the pretzel at the chocolate egg, which resulted in a surprisingly impressive explosion.

"Zola picked it up from the Nazis," said Bucky. "When their forces were pulling out, they planted bombs in everything from first aid kits to chocolate bars. Zola used Cadbury Eggs. He thought it was funny. You know. An Easter egg."

"Death by chocolate," whispered Tony.

"Unlikely," said Bucky. "Your suit would have protected you from the blast. Since your helmet was up, you might have gone blind, but you probably wouldn't have died."

"Probably." Tony gave Bucky a sideways glance. "Thanks anyways."

They split up to finish searching facility, but they didn't find any Easter eggs, symbolic or otherwise.

"Time to call it?" asked Nat. She'd accompanied him and Bucky. Rhodes and Tony had taken satellite buildings. Sam and Bruce had taken the second floor.

Steve nodded. He was about to say as much through the comms when they crackled with static. There was the sound of crashing metal was followed by a grunt of pain.

"Sam? Sam, sit rep!"

"The South stairs collapsed." That was Bruce. "Sam has a gash on his leg. Looks clean, no arterial splatter, but I'm going to need help carrying him. If I turn into the other guy, I'll take out the rest of the building."

"On it."

Steve started running south, mentally recreating the floorplans he'd glanced at before the mission. He heard Bucky and Nat fall into step behind him. They found Sam lying in a small pile of rubble. Bruce was holding his coat to a gash on Sam's leg, but it had already soaked through.

Steve saw a first aid kit on the landing and reached for it. He realized his mistake a second before he heard Bucky's shout.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N:

If you like this story, please check out the Kickstarter for my book. It was made a Project We Love, but I still need all the help I can get.

The link is on my profile page, because this site won't allow external links.

* * *

When Steve woke up, he was in the hospital.

He'd fallen asleep in the visitor's chair. He didn't know what had woken him up. Visiting hours were long over, the nurse had made her last rounds twenty minutes ago, which meant she wasn't due for another forty, and Bucky was still asleep.

"Gotov vypolnit."

Steve sighed. He checked to make sure the doctors hadn't left any scalpels lying around before leaning in to wake Bucky up. At least there was nowhere for him to hide a knife in that hospital gown.

"Hey, buddy. It's a bad dream. Wake up."

A second later, he was pinned to the bed with a knife to his throat.

"Bucky, it's me. It's Steve. It's Steve Rogers."

"Stevie?"

No one had called him that in almost a century.

"Yeah, it's Stevie."

Bucky removed the knife, and Steve rubbed his throat.

"Where did you even- Never mind. Are you okay?"

"What happened?"

"I screwed up. I grabbed a first aid kit to treat Sam. It was another Nazi booby trap. You knocked it out of my hands and jumped on it. Some second degree burns and a couple of busted ribs, but you'll live."

"Sam okay?"

"He's fine. A few stitches and he was good to go."

"Everyone else?"

"You're the only one getting the five-star treatment at Klinikum Stuttgart." Steve patted the blanket next to Bucky's leg. "That was pretty reckless, even for you, and you once pantsed Meredith Springer."

Bucky smiled the smile of the heavily drugged. "I remember that."

"Seriously, buddy. You scared me. You didn't even hesitate. That's Hydra training. Swallow the cyanide capsule, go down with the ship. The mission before your life. Did it kick in because we were at a Hydra facility? We should have done a milk run for your first mission. Maybe an actual milk run. We need to pick up Pop Tarts anyway."

"Slow down, Steve." The smile was gone. "Is that why you wouldn't let me go on a mission until now? You were afraid Hydra's training would kick in?"

"Did it?"

"That wasn't Hydra's training. That was just training. You're welcome, by the way. Oh, and you have no right to talk about jumping on bombs. Peggy told me stories. You know what? You have no right to talk about being reckless."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Steve. He wasn't reckless. Teenagers were reckless. He was Captain America.

"Tell me this," Bucky rolled over to face him as much as his ribs would allow. "On the Helicarrier, if I had tried to finish the mission, would you have fought back?"

Steve hesitated, but he owed Bucky the truth.

"No."

"You would have let me kill you?" He sounded angry. They were finally fighting, and Steve couldn't remember why he'd wanted this.

He tried to explain. "Bucky, you're the reason I picked all those fights I couldn't win. Hell, you're the reason I enlisted. I wanted to be more like you. There were four hundred men at that camp in Italy, but you're the one I went there for. You're the one I jumped the bridge for. You're the one I became Captain America for. You make me a better person, Buck."

"Bullshit," Bucky shook his head. "You're a hero."

"Well, you're the reason! I couldn't be everyone else's hero if you weren't mine. I can't do this without you."

Bucky scoffed. "You won World War II without me, Steve."

"Buck, the last time I lost you, I drove a plane into the Atlantic. Sure, I had to do it, but I could have at least, I don't know, _tried_ to bail out."

"You stupid son of a-" Bucky started coughing.

Steve sat on the bed, and pulled him back against his chest, like Bucky used to do for him when the asthma was bad.

"Sorry," he said into Bucky's hair. It needed a trim. God, he really was as bad as ma. "I don't want to fight with you. Dr. Strange was right. We're too codependent to function, so let's both try to stick around, okay? I mean, I'm with you till the end of the line, but maybe we can we try put that line off a ways."

"Ready to comply," Bucky mumbled, already half-asleep.

"Good. Now get some rest, jerk."

"Yes, ma."

Steve couldn't decide if that was better or worse than punk. He patted Bucky's metal arm and settled in for the rest of the night. "Why is it always you, Buck?"

"So it isn't you."

Apparently, things hadn't changed as much as Steve had thought.


End file.
